Chapter 1- The Novel and Misfortune

“The 7th Prince has been a little strange lately, hasn't he?”

The youngest maid, who was doing laundry by the old well, cautiously opened her mouth.

For a mere maid to speak of the imperial family was a remark that might normally cost her her head, but in the 7th Prince's Palace, where there were few workers and no one who cared, there was no one to nitpick such rudeness.

“He's less irritable than before, and he throws things a little less, too.”

He especially doesn't throw them at people much anymore…….

The maid added in a fading voice.

“Maybe he's finally realized that no one wants to come work here anymore?”

Another maid, who had been listening indifferently, offered a plausible opinion with similar indifference.

The neglected 7th Prince's Palace was always short-staffed, as no one wanted to come.

The 7th Prince had also killed, half-killed, or threatened the people who were originally there, making them all leave.

They were already busy due to the lack of hands, and they didn't have the mental capacity to worry about such things, so the topic soon faded from the servants' interest.

“No. Something is definitely strange…….”

Only Anna, the youngest maid who had first brought it up, tilted her head, unconvinced.

And this bright child's words were correct.

No, half-correct.

After all, this body I'm in, sitting on a tree by the window of the dilapidated 7th Prince's Palace and listening to the laundry maids' chatter, belongs to the 7th Prince, Ran Abalan.

Though the 'core' inside is that of an ordinary 28-year-old man from the Republic of Korea.

To add, I have no way of knowing where the original owner of this body went.

But it probably doesn't matter.

It's crude to say, but he was a complete piece of trash, and he was scheduled to have his throat torn out and die within 3 years anyway.

If you ask how I can be so sure, that's also quite simple.

I read it all.

So, to summarize, this is the world inside a book, and I've ended up inside it.

***

There are days when I'm exceptionally tired.

A day when nothing goes right, a day when, even though an office worker's life is pretty much all the same, I crave a cigarette just a little bit more.

In the morning, my shoelace suddenly came undone on the stairs, making me miss a subway train, and just when I thought I'd barely avoided being late, the section chief, who'd uncharacteristically come in early, gave me crap.

I thought it wasn't something a guy who only shows up on time about once a month should be saying, but since he was the one holding my paycheck, I just nodded my head.

It wasn't like work was going smoothly, either.

The new employees made basic mistakes several times, and I was the one who had to deal with the hassle.

On top of that, a boring company dinner was waiting at the end of an energy-draining day.

They say the culture of forcing company dinners has disappeared these days, but our tiny-ass company seemed to have failed to overcome inertia and been flung off the track of modern development.

I had to drag my tired body into the usual pork belly restaurant behind the company building.

From a seat neither too far nor too close, I listened to the section chief's pointless tales of valor with one ear and let them out the other, picking at the pork belly.

I wasn't gaining anything from this, so I figured I should at least replenish my protein.

“Assistant Manager, what do you do on your days off?”

A female employee with bright, sparkling eyes had spoken to me.

The new hire from the next team, who had made frequent mistakes today.

She was truly the newest of the new, struggling just to answer the phone.

It didn't seem like she lacked a knack for work, so I wondered why she was like that, but then I remembered her supervisor and understood.

The salary thief who was always away from his desk, Assistant Manager Kim.

I thought I'd heard he was into stocks or something; he was the type who only clutched his phone even during work hours, affecting the work processing of those around him.

Her supervisor hadn't taught her anything, it seemed, and her fumbling was frustrating, so I had taken the call for her.

Whether she felt extremely grateful for that or what, I could see her trying to get friendly with me.

Though I had no intention of getting friendly.

I felt bad, but I didn't want to teach her work step-by-step in place of her supervisor, and in the first place, I don't make friends at work.

“I don't do anything.”

“Ah! You must be a homebody too, Assistant Manager. Oh wait, a stay-at-home guy. Me too…… Home is the most relaxing, isn't it? Even if I'm outside, when I come back home, I feel like I get recharged and stuff.”

Whether she was just very sociable or what, her attempt to continue the conversation despite my blunt answer was pitiful, so I gave a vague reply and was about to stand up, saying I'd go to the restroom.

“Stay-at-home guy, my ass. Assistant Manager Lee isn't a stay-at-home guy, he's just a monk, a monk.”

The voice had come from her supervisor, the salary thief Assistant Manager Kim.

His chubby face was flushed red, and he was staring this way resentfully.

The new employee, flustered by her supervisor's sudden intervention, asked back.

“Huh?”

As if displeased by the suddenly awkward atmosphere, Assistant Manager Kim clicked his tongue.

“Newbie, your supervisor is right across from you, why are you paying attention to Assistant Manager Lee?”

Subtly revealing his displeasure, Assistant Manager Kim, who had downed another shot of soju, glared at me this time.

“You don't show up even when the department head calls you to go hiking on the weekend, you don't play golf, you don't really have any hobbies, do you? You diligently clock in for overtime pay, but you don't seem to use that money to dress up or anything…….”

As he said this, Assistant Manager Kim blatantly looked me up and down.

My clothes weren't messy or old, but it seemed it wasn't enough for his eyes.

He fiddled with his wallet, which he had placed on the table, and continued

.

“Shouldn't you also pay some attention to self-development, Assistant Manager Lee? You know, a person can't succeed just by being diligent.”

When I didn't avoid his gaze as he scanned me, as if gauging my reaction, Assistant Manager Kim clicked his tongue as if displeased.

“You seem to be proud of your success.”

As I spoke, popping another piece of meat into my mouth, a sneer spread across his face.

“I'm confident that I'm living a better life than some people.”

“How did you succeed?”

When I asked, Assistant Manager Kim opened his mouth as if I'd asked something obvious, but he soon closed it again.

I, who had asked it as a purely genuine question this time, was a little disappointed.

He must be living what he considers a decent life, to speak so confidently like that.

I was a little curious about the source of it.

Even at my age, I wasn't sure if I was living properly.

But Assistant Manager Kim just fiddled with his belongings and didn't give me a refreshing, clear answer.

“……Unlike someone, I'm not living a life where I come to work and do overtime the day after my father's funeral.”

And the answer he finally gave was just that crap.

He preemptively flinched at the words he himself had spat out, and then, as if angry at himself for reacting that way, he glared back at me.

“What, you got something to say? Always glaring at me like you're pissed off.”

He needed to get his facts straight.

I had never glared at Assistant Manager Kim.

Though I had told him not to leave his desk and to just do his job properly.

“I don't think we see each other at the office often enough for me to glare at you every day.”

I meant it as, how can I glare at someone who isn't even at his desk.

Even with his head pickled in alcohol, Assistant Manager Kim seemed to have just enough sense left to understand that much, as he flared up and opened his mouth.

“What, you……!”

What, you bastard.

When I looked at him with an expression that said, 'What are you gonna do about it,' Assistant Manager Kim clamped his lips shut.

If he pressed me on what I meant right here, it would just end up mentioning once more in front of everyone that he was frequently away from his desk, and it seemed he didn't want that to happen.

Fortunately, Assistant Manager Kim didn't try to pick a fight with me again during the company dinner.

Though that didn't stop him from occasionally glaring holes through me while sipping his alcohol.

If you came to the company to earn money, you should just earn money. Why live getting so heated up over things at work?

For my part, the speck of interest I had in him, whom I couldn't understand, had completely vanished by the time the company dinner was winding down.

I gave a half-hearted goodbye and turned away, debating whether to walk home or take the bus, and I chose to sober up in the cold, early winter wind rather than use public transport reeking of alcohol and meat.

This was how today was supposed to end.

“Hey! You……, you, let's talk.”

If not for the tongue-twisted voice that caught me from behind in the alley I'd entered to take a shortcut, today could have been a slightly less tiring day.

When I turned around, Assistant Manager Kim, his face flushed red, was glaring at me.

“If it's about work, let's talk at the office tomorrow.”

He approached, reeking of alcohol, and I, finding it unpleasant, frowned and took a step back, which only made Assistant Manager Kim raise his voice.

“Hey! Why do you always ignore me?!”

What was this crap now?

I wasn't interested enough in my colleagues to single anyone out and intentionally ignore them.

While I was momentarily speechless in disbelief, Assistant Manager Kim's drunken antics continued.

“Who, who do you think you are to ignore me?! Who the hell is a guy like you, who has nothing to ignore me! Why are you humiliating me?!”

Right, my sin was momentarily forgetting the immutable law of the universe that a drunk person can't hear anything you say.

I looked around.

It was late at night, and a deserted alleyway.

Meaning, nobody was around.

The problem was that I didn't know what would happen if the commotion continued like this.

“Go home and sleep it off. You probably won't even be able to look me in the face tomorrow from embarrassment.”

Not wanting to get dragged into his drunken fit any longer, I chose to leave.

But he, completely consumed by the alcohol, seemed to interpret even the act of me turning my back as me ignoring him.

“I told you not to ignore me, didn't I?!”

I saw his chubby fist flying towards me.

It was a punch thrown with all his might and no control, as much as he was drunk, but it was also slow, as much as he was drunk.

I moved my body back, dodging his all-out punch, and Assistant Manager Kim made an unsightly ‘Oof!’ sound as he tumbled to the ground.

Whether he tripped on a stone or what, the front pocket of his suit jacket was spectacularly torn.

As I looked down at him for a moment, his head buried in the ground as if embarrassed, a wave of fatigue washed over me.

“If you're not unconscious, get up and go home.”

Whether he heard my voice or not, he, who had been squirming like a slug exposed to sunlight, slowly raised his head.

Unfortunately, his face was quite scraped up.

Seeing the blood pooled in his mouth, it looked like the inside of his mouth had burst, or he'd lost a tooth.

“Eek!”

I swear, I was not the owner of that cute little scream.

I turned my gaze to where the scream had come from, that is, between the buildings packed tightly together in the alley.

Someone who had been half-hiding between the buildings revealed themselves.

It was the new employee who had been sitting next to me at the company dinner just a little while ago.

A cell phone clutched tightly in one hand.

A sigh escaped me automatically.

The wearying day was not over yet.

***

“……I was heading home, and I saw Assistant Manager Kim staggering after you, Assistant Manager. I had a bad feeling, so I decided to watch for just a bit. It was on my way home anyway…….”

The new employee, who had approached me and the sprawled-out Assistant Manager Kim, earnestly made excuses to assert that she was not a stalker.

“I get it.”

I replied shortly and kicked Assistant Manager Kim over onto his back.

He grunted as his body flipped over, and as he fumbled over himself, he must have discovered his torn jacket pocket, as his face crumpled.

“You, you bastard……! I'll get you for this!”

Even in that state, Assistant Manager Kim was flapping his arms and legs, spouting nonsense.

“He's fine.”

As I muttered, he glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

“A person is bleeding this much……. You, you inhuman bastard……. Don't you know everyone at work whispers about you? That you're not even human……Gack!”

I grabbed the collar of the earnestly blabbering man, lifted him, and rummaged through his pockets.

The characteristic unpleasant, hot body temperature of a drunkard was disgusting, so when I found the cell phone in his inner jacket pocket, I admit I slammed him back on the ground a bit irritably.

I turned on the cell phone and saw it was set to unlock with face recognition, not a pattern.

It was probably the only praiseworthy choice Assistant Manager Kim had ever made in his life.

If not, he would have had to make the cold street his bed for the night.

I grabbed the nape of his neck and shoved his face at the phone.

Fortunately, technological advancement allowed the phone to recognize its owner, even with Assistant Manager Kim's scraped-up face.

I had to call the number saved in his contacts as ‘Dad’.

“Your son is drinking in the alley next to the pork belly restaurant at OO Intersection, so come and get him.”

And I hung up before the person on the other side could answer.

Not telling him that his son got drunk, tried to beat someone up, and fell flat on his face was my final act of consideration, and a declaration that I wanted nothing more to do with him.

This should be enough.

If he broke a tooth, he'll get it fixed himself.

I turned to leave without any lingering attachment.

I was just so tired.

Then, I heard the sound of light footsteps urgently following behind me.

The new employee, who had started walking right behind me, was hesitating as if she had something to say; I could feel it even from behind.

When I didn't bother to say anything, the new employee finally spoke first.

“What are you going to do tomorrow?”

“What do you mean, what am I going to do? I have to go to work.”

“I saw earlier that Assistant Manager Kim's clothes looked all torn……. That's probably pretty expensive.”

No wonder he was rummaging through his jacket rather than worrying about his bleeding face; I'd just thought his judgment was clouded because he was drunk.

As I nodded in understanding, the new employee, who had been following me, sped up and stood beside me.

“If Assistant Manager Kim tries to force you to pay for it, I'll help you! I recorded a video of it all earlier!”

The new employee said in a determined voice.

So the purpose of the cell phone in her hand earlier wasn't to report it, but to collect evidence.

Whether my silent walking was bothering her, the new employee's voice gradually grew smaller.

“……And I'm sorry. I feel like I was being tactless earlier, which made Assistant Manager Kim pick on you even more, Assistant Manager Lee.”

Just then, the alleyway ended, and a main street appeared.

I turned back and watched her exit the alley completely before I spoke.

“If you make a habit of apologizing for things that aren't your fault, you won't last long in company life. Well, it wasn't entirely wrong, either.”

Saying anything other than blunt words didn't suit my personality, so I told her to go on home and was about to turn and leave.

“Assistant Manager Lee!”

The new employee shouted at my back, making me turn around in surprise.

“Don't worry about what Assistant Manager Kim said! I still think you're living a much more human life, Assistant Manager Lee! Like Assistant Manager Kim said, living doing only what you want is what's really dog-like! Like a beast!”

Get home safe! she yelled, then turned back around and ran toward the bus stop.

I was dumbfounded by her harsh language and stared in her direction for a moment before turning on my heel again.

She must have been pretty drunk, too.

As I walked, thinking about various things like the problem of new graduates drinking beyond their limits, I found myself in front of the old villa where I lived.

A building where the paint that had spelled out the villa's name was all peeled off, making the original name illegible, and the walls, which must have been white when it was newly built, had turned completely ivory—my old nest.

It was on the first floor and only had one room, but it was livable enough.

I clutched my slightly dizzy head and collapsed onto the bed.

The drunkenness I hadn't felt while walking the chilly streets slowly crept up on me.

In my spinning head, the incidents and conversations that had rushed in at the end of the day surfaced and sank.

Monk, son of a bitch, beast.

Though the last word made me snort out a laugh.

Tomorrow, just as the new employee had said, would surely be a more troublesome day than today.

The still-drunk Assistant Manager Kim might cause a scene, demanding I pay for his clothes and medical bills, and other unexpected, annoying things might happen.

But even amidst all that, the word 'beast' stubbornly refused to leave my mind.

That young new employee had called me human-like, but actually, if I had to say, I thought Assistant Manager Kim was a bit closer to that word.

Acting on instinct, doing as you please—I guess you could call that human-like in its own way.

I couldn't remember a day when I'd had any goal other than surviving day to day.

Because, as someone said, living like a monk was more familiar to me.

I had never even thought about living any other way.

Actually, it had been quite a while since I'd reached a point where I didn't have to maintain that kind of life.

In a few more months, my loans would be fully repaid.

It meant the day when I wouldn't have to work like a dog was not far off, but I felt no particular emotion about it.

I didn't know if it was because I had continued this lifestyle for too long, or if, as someone said, it was because I was an inhuman bastard.

My head, already dizzy from the alcohol, became even more complicated.

My mood had sunk a bit, so I turned my head and reached out a hand toward the small bookshelf by my bed.

It was the only piece of furniture in my empty, bare room, besides the bed.

The bookshelf was packed tightly with books.

Saying that Assistant Manager Kim's words weren't entirely wrong meant that there were parts that weren't wrong.

This was my one and only hobby-like thing.

Collecting the complete series of a genre novel I liked.

It was published when I was in elementary school, and it wasn't a big hit, just a so-so fantasy novel, so it was hard to find unless it was a physical copy.

I relieved my stress by paying off my loans, saving, and then pinching a little from my remaining living expenses to buy these books, which had a premium on them, one by one.

There was no place that sold the entire series at once, so I had a few overlapping volumes, but I liked that in its own way, as I could read them without worrying about damaging the books.

I had three copies of Volume 1.

I pulled one of them out and opened it.

When my mood soured, I would reread the books I'd collected like this. Could this be called a hobby? Or should I just call it a habit?

I read down the first line of the novel, which I had practically memorized by now.

Thinking that my eyes were flickering strangely.

-It was a bright red blood, showing that blood the same color as a human's flowed even in the body of the divine race. He shot blood from every orifice in his body……s……h……o……t…….

That day was a really tiring day.

Abnormally so.

I couldn't even finish reading the first sentence of the book before I sank into a deep slumber, as if someone had grabbed me by the hair and pulled me down.

I faintly heard the sound of the book slipping through my fingers and falling onto the bed.

Ah, the book shouldn't get creased.

Through my fading consciousness, it seemed a voice echoed.

I didn't know who decided to give me what, but I don't believe in anything free.

So I wanted to answer that I didn't need it, but I lost consciousness right then and couldn't.

And when I opened my eyes again,

-Caw?

A window frame with decorations one might see in the medieval times, and a crow sitting on it, were greeting me.

“Aargh!!!”

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